Not really. Same date, same place, but these filmmakers cut together an edit that is both beautiful and slaps you in the face with the reality of big-wave surfing.

I love the pre-dawn prep shots. Faces held in concentration as they wait. Then the waves start to build. How big are truly record-breaking waves? I didn’t know until I saw the buildings and people in the foreground and the waves arching up behind. Damn! That’s a big-mountain avalanche of water.

Suddenly, watching those little specks skittering down the face got a lot scarier. The veneer of adventure-film-radness is tempered by the real danger these guys are putting themselves in. The surf rumbles. Jetskis pulling guys out race against a wall of water collapsing on top of them. A surfer loses his balance and begins a slow-motion fall off his board.

Whatever your reaction to the film, there’s one emotion that seems inescapable: respect — for the filmmakers, for the athletes, for Mother Nature.